Prime Minister's Office
English rendering of the PM's speech at Pashudhan Arogya Mela in Shahanshahpur, Varanasi
My dear brothers and sisters who are present here in large numbers,
Such a massive crowd so early in the morning! I could not imagine this thing, one can see people everywhere! First of all, I would like to say sorry to you people as the arrangements made by us were not sufficient and many people are standing under the sun, they are facing difficulty but despite that they have turned up to give their blessings. I express my gratitude to them and I also seek their forgiveness. But I’d like to assure those people who are standing under the sun that we will never allow your sufferings to go waste.
Brothers and sisters, I’d like to convey my best wishes to the government of Uttar Pradesh, particularly to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh as he has organized a health fair for livestock. This health fair for livestock, when I visited the fair then some 1700 cattle from different place were there and several expert veterinary doctors were there and they were taking care of the health of livestock. And I’m confident that as Uttar Pradesh government has made this effort, they will organize these livestock health fairs across the state and our poor farmers who sometimes hesitate to ensure the health of his livestock due to poverty, these livestock health fairs will provide a big relief to him.
And we know that in the agriculture sector, if something that helps our farmers the most in the field of agriculture then it is animal husbandry, it is production of milk. And that is why milk production, animal husbandry and our cattle health fairs will provide great facility, great service to our villages, to our poor farmers and to our cattle raisers in the coming days. And I heartily congratulate the government of Uttar Pradesh for this thing.
Brothers and sisters, this is the nature of politics that politicians prefer those things where they see some potential for getting votes. They work to strengthen their vote bank. But, brothers and sisters, we are the people who have been raised in a different value system, our character is different. For us the country is more important than the party and therefore our priorities are not governed by the votes.
Today, this cattle health fair, this is service to those animals that never go to cast votes. These are not voters of anybody. And this kind of movement for livestock has never been done in the last seventy years. These health services will provide a new facility in the area of livestock keeping; it will provide a new system.
Today, our country is doing well in the field of milk production. However, our per capita milk production is very low in comparison with the global average. And due to this thing cattle raising has become costlier in our country. If we succeed in increasing the per capita milk production then I’m confident that our farmers will take interest in animal husbandry, and milk production will lead to a new economic revolution.
Brothers and sisters, I was born in Gujarat, and Gujarat was my area of work and I have seen that cooperative way of milk production has given a new strength to the farmers of Gujarat. I’ve been informed that a Gujarat based dairy - Banas dairy – has started procuring milk from farmers in Lucknow-Kanpur area. And today, farmers are getting several times better price for their milk than they used to get earlier. I’ve been told that Banas dairy is going to start procurement of milk from the farmers of Kashi region in the coming days.
And I’m confident that when this procurement of milk will start through a dairy, when it will start on the basis of the fat content then the price of milk of the farmers of Kashi region will go up many folds and it will also result in the increase in their incomes. And that is why I congratulate the government of Uttar Pradesh, congratulate the farmers of Uttar Pradesh for starting this movement with the help of Gujarat government, with the help of Banas dairy for the farmers, for the livestock keepers and for the milk producers so that we can work together in the field of milk production, in the field of animal husbandry.
Brothers and sisters, India will complete 75 years of its independence in 2022. And when India is completing 75 years of independence in 2022 then we should collectively determine to realize the dreams of India’s freedom fighters. We must strive to realize those dreams, we should put our time and effort and we must realize those dreams in any case. If 1.25 billon citizens of India vow for at least one thing then the country will march ahead by 1.25 billion steps in five years. So brothers and sisters: 2022 - the pledge of our freedom struggle.
It’s our pledge to double our farmers’ income by 2022. And livestock keeping is one way, modernizing our agriculture is one way in that direction. The soil should be investigated through soil health cards, the farmers should get total support of this thing, we have been working in the direction to strengthen these things.
The way the work of issuing the soil health cards to the farmers has picked up the pace after the formation of new government in Uttar Pradesh it is going to help in the welfare of our farmers in the coming days.
Similarly, no one from amongst us likes to live in dirtiness. There would be no man who would not hate dirtiness. Everyone hates the filth. But this cleanliness, this is our responsibility, this culture has not developed in our country.
We will pollute and someone else will clean it, this mentality is the main reason behind our inability to make India clean, to make our cities and villages clean as we want them. No one of you can deny that this cleanliness is the responsibility of every citizen, this cleanliness is the responsibility of every family and that is why this cleanliness, this is not enough that just our village looks clean, our locality looks clean, this is not enough. Cleanliness is very important for our health. Lack of cleanliness is the main cause behind the rise of several diseases.
UNICEF has just completed the survey of 10,000 families in India. The survey was on the construction of toilets and yesterday I have read this thing in a news paper that UNICEF has said: If there is a toilet in the house then it saves the expenditure of around Rs. 50,000 per annum incurred due to diseases. Today, I got the good opportunity to work in the construction of a toilet in a small village nearby. And the people of that village have determined that they will make their village open defecation free by the 2nd October. The villagers have taken a solemn vow that not a single person will defecate in open from the 2nd October onward. And I am happy that I got the good opportunity to lay a stone for that toilet during this auspicious period of Navratra; it’s a kind of worship for me. For me cleanliness is equal to worship, cleanliness will rid the poor people of my country of diseases. Cleanliness will rid the poor people of my country of that burden that falls on them due to lack of cleanliness. And that is why it is my mission for the welfare of the poor people and I congratulate those who have been supporting me in this movement.
Today, I’m happy as generally toilet word is in use in our country but today in the village where I laid the foundation for a toilet, in that village, Izzatghar  was written on all the toilets in that village. I really liked this word- Izzatghar , and especially this toilet is indeed a place of honor for our sisters and daughters. And the house that has this Izzatghar is indeed a place of honor. And that village is also respected where there are toilets . And I also congratulate the government of Uttar Pradesh for coining this term Izzatghar , for identifying toilets as Izzatghars . They have given a new respect to toilets. This name of Izzatghar, this is my belief that whosoever who is mindful of honor, who is concerned about the honor, he will certainly construct a toilet  and he will certainly use it and will become a man of honor.
Brothers and sisters, even today there are millions and millions of families in our country who don’t have their own house, who don’t have a roof on their heads. They survive in sub-human conditions. Brothers and sisters, it is our duty that we provide a roof on the head of the poorest of the poor, we provide a house to the poorest of the poor.
And brothers and sisters that is why we have taken a pledge. And I know that it’s a very difficult task. But If Modi will not do difficult thing then who else will do it. And brothers, that is why we have decided that when India will complete 75 years of its independence in 2022, then by that time we will provide a house to every poor person of India. Whether that poor person lives in a city or in a village, we have determined to provide a house to every such person in India who doesn’t have a house. And when millions and millions of houses will be constructed in India, we have to construct so many houses that in a way we have to construct a small country of Europe in India; we have to create so many houses. And when the new houses will be constructed then they will require bricks, they will require cement, steel, woods, it will provide employment to new people, it will provide the work of a mason, when millions and millions of houses will be constructed then it will create a new avenue of employment.
Today, I’m happy as we used to write letters to the previous government in Uttar Pradesh, we used to tell them to prepare a list of those people of the state who don’t have a house, we used to ask them to give such a list to us as the government of India wanted to work out a scheme but I have to say this thing with sadness that the previous government had no interest in constructing the houses for the poor. When we applied too much pressure on them then they reluctantly gave us a list of just 10,000 people. But when Yogi Ji’s government came in to power then it immediately started working on this thing and as of today they have registered the names of millions of people in the list. It’s not just that, today, I was fortunate to hand over the funds to those people whose houses are going to be constructed.
Brothers and sisters, be it cleanliness or be it providing electricity to the villages or be it constructing toilets in schools or be it making the villages open defecation free or be it supplying electricity to every household or be it supplying the drinking water to people, our country has been indifferent towards all these things.
If the lives of our villages, our poor farmers change, if the lives of our middle class families change then the country will become what we want to make it and the first condition for this thing is that the relief is being provided to our middle class families, that relief is being provided to poor families to bring about changes in their lives. And that is why we have transformed all those schemes; we have strengthened all such schemes which can bring about change in the country.
Brothers and sisters, yesterday I got the opportunity to dedicate several cleanliness related projects in Banaras. A sewage treatment plant has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 600 crores, and we have kept the capacity of the plant such that it will be sufficient even for the expansion and growth of Banaras in the next 20 years, we have decided for this kind of massive work.
We have emphasized on the recycling of waste material - from waste to wealth. And we have decided to produce electricity from this waste material along with emphasizing on converting this waste material into wealth and we will supply the electricity produced from the waste material to 40,000 thousand houses. We have launched a movement to provide LED bulbs. The kind of electricity bulbs that have been installed in Kashi alone, every family will save money on account of saving in the electricity bill due to use of LED bulbs and when I calculated this thing then officers told me that the LED bulbs installed in Kashi alone will collectively reduce the electricity bill by Rs. 125 crore. You can imagine that common man’s money will be saved, somebody will save Rs. 500, someone will save Rs. 1,000 and someone else will save Rs. 250 and the entire city will save Rs. 125 crore, this in itself is a good effort by us to reduce the burden of poor and middle class.
It’s not that, the streetlights that have been installed in Kashi, they too have LED bulbs and due to use of LED bulbs in streetlights in Kashi alone, the electricity bill has come down by Rs. 13 crore. Municipal council of Kashi has saved Rs. 13 crore. And this 13 crore rupees will be used in the development of Kashi. It’s very easy, just replace the old bulbs with LED bulbs and it saves Rs. 125 crore of citizens and Rs. 13 crore of municipal council, this in itself is a proof that how we are bringing about transparency.
Brothers and sisters, be it black money or corruption or be it dishonesty; I’ve waged a massive battle against all these things. This country’s common man, honest man has to suffer because of this thing as dishonest people have been robbing the honest person. And brothers and sisters, that is why today this movement is emerging as a festival. The way small traders, petty traders have been joining GST, the way people are getting associated with Aadhaar, and the money that used to be siphoned off, all that money, every single penny of the public money will be spent in public welfare, we have started working on these things. We have been moving very fast. And that is why my dear brothers and sisters, development of villages of this place, development of poor people and farmers and development of our cities. Development; we have been moving forward with this formula alone. I express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have turned up here in such a large number to give blessings.
This is the parliamentary constituency of our Mahendra Pandey Ji, and I express my heartfelt gratitude for the energy, enthusiasm and the zeal that you have shown. Once again I congratulate the Yogi government for the successful initiatives and I also congratulate and thank him the way he has successfully taken the steps to transform the Uttar Pradesh within six months and moving ahead in that direction successfully.
Please join me in chanting – Bharat Mata Ki Jai .
Please say with your full strength - Bharat Mata Ki Jai .
Bharat Mata Ki Jai .
Bharat Mata Ki Jai .
Bharat Mata Ki Jai .
Thank you very much.